That is truly the question. Should I, as a manager of a corporate wiki, develop and implement a Quality Assurance (QA) process when users submit content for publishing? A corporate or in-house wiki is not the same as a public wiki such as Wikipedia and more can be done to make the content effective.
For example, Wikipedia's authors (everyone) do not have access to the base file structure. In a corporate wiki, if you allow users the ability to create pages at will, the base file structure may be vulnerable to accidental deletion. Should you implement file backup procedures? Should there be a publishing staging area where content sits while it is being reviewed and approved thereby creating a possible automatic backup and restore point?
Wikipedia does not provide templates for authors. In a corporate wiki environment, the authors can be guided to templates that already support corporate guidelines like headers, footers, typeface, body length, and special sections including "see also" and "for more information, contact x." A template can make the page creation process much smoother for the corporate employee who is just trying to publish content quickly and does not have time to research and apply the guidelines.
Quality Assurance exists to make sure content meets guidelines whatever those guidelines might be. Suppose you don't want duplicate content to exist on your corporate wiki or you want to make sure content is easy to find by the intended audience. One way to weed out duplicate content is to avoid publishing it in the first place. The QA governing body could review proposed content, determine the subject matter, then search the wiki to see if such subject matter exists already. If the content is exactly the same, the proposed content is not published. Likewise the QA governing body could add metatags or identify which keywords an audience is likely to use when searching for a particular piece of content and then make sure the search function first looks for keywords before executing a full-text search.
What guidelines are you most likely to want to enforce with a QA process? It is entirely up to your unique organization, the type of content being submitted, the authors, viewers, and corporate policy. Perhaps the best QA is to leave it up to the viewers. That is, open up the pages to everyone in read/write mode. When a viewer recognizes outdated, incorrect, or inconsistent content, it is up to that person to make the correction.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
2004 Article About Corporate Wikis
Using Wikis in a Corporate Context
Dr. Espen Andersen
November 10, 2004
(draft)
Dr. Andersen "investigates the technology of Wikis" and says that a wiki is not just a platform for creating content quickly, it is also a way to "manage knowledge creation through evolution of norms and values rather than directives and incentives."
This article deserves further review because this is the first article I have encountered that focuses on (a) the corporate context wiki and (b) management of knowledge.
Dr. Andersen's point about a wiki being a non-traditional (in 2004) method of managing knowledge creation deserves further research.
Dr. Espen Andersen
November 10, 2004
(draft)
Dr. Andersen "investigates the technology of Wikis" and says that a wiki is not just a platform for creating content quickly, it is also a way to "manage knowledge creation through evolution of norms and values rather than directives and incentives."
This article deserves further review because this is the first article I have encountered that focuses on (a) the corporate context wiki and (b) management of knowledge.
Dr. Andersen's point about a wiki being a non-traditional (in 2004) method of managing knowledge creation deserves further research.
Monday, November 15, 2010
"The Speed of Collaborative Communities"
I found this http://wiki-management.com/blog/ by searching Twitter. This is a blog dated 15 November 2010.
Rod Collins, the author, talks about horizontal vs vertical - - he is referring to how organizations, well, organize themselves. Some organizations are vertically organized and managed in vertical silos. Others are moving towards a more horizontal alignment where teams of people across verticals work together to solve issues.
That's what we do at work - we solve problems. We come up with solutions. If there were no problems, we wouldn't have jobs.
Take Minnesota State University, for example. This organization solves the problem of education. There are people who want to learn and MSU provides a solution. However, like most educational organizations, MSU is likely vertically organized. There are likely many different educational disciplines, all fighting for funding, all pining for students. Depending on many factors including the economy, marketing effectiveness, political climates, even worldwide events, one discipline may be edging out and may have more students, more funding, than the others.
In the late 80s and early 90s, I remember not being able to get into computer science classes - they were perpetually 'full' - semester after semester, year after year. While all these students were focused on computer science, other disciplines were perhaps suffering from smaller enrollment, less funding. What would happen if the disciplines collaborated horizontally instead of being siloed vertically?
This might mean that the English department and the Physical Education (PE) department collaborate to find a solution to a particular issue. Or maybe they just continue to work on opposite sides of the field, and start to have conversations about resources. Perhaps through horizontal collaboration, the English department finds out there is an Olympic hopeful swimming the Butterfly at the speed of sound who always wanted to write a book about his experiences - but he doesn't know where to begin. At the same time, there may be hundreds of cooped-up, stressed out, burned out English majors in need of some PE outlet. A couple of courses about the physiological makeup of the body might help them learn the importance and benefits of de-stressing.
By collaborating horizontally we find things out about each other that we didn't know before. We find things out that we didn't know that we knew or that we wanted to know. We become richer.
Rod Collins, the author, talks about horizontal vs vertical - - he is referring to how organizations, well, organize themselves. Some organizations are vertically organized and managed in vertical silos. Others are moving towards a more horizontal alignment where teams of people across verticals work together to solve issues.
That's what we do at work - we solve problems. We come up with solutions. If there were no problems, we wouldn't have jobs.
Take Minnesota State University, for example. This organization solves the problem of education. There are people who want to learn and MSU provides a solution. However, like most educational organizations, MSU is likely vertically organized. There are likely many different educational disciplines, all fighting for funding, all pining for students. Depending on many factors including the economy, marketing effectiveness, political climates, even worldwide events, one discipline may be edging out and may have more students, more funding, than the others.
In the late 80s and early 90s, I remember not being able to get into computer science classes - they were perpetually 'full' - semester after semester, year after year. While all these students were focused on computer science, other disciplines were perhaps suffering from smaller enrollment, less funding. What would happen if the disciplines collaborated horizontally instead of being siloed vertically?
This might mean that the English department and the Physical Education (PE) department collaborate to find a solution to a particular issue. Or maybe they just continue to work on opposite sides of the field, and start to have conversations about resources. Perhaps through horizontal collaboration, the English department finds out there is an Olympic hopeful swimming the Butterfly at the speed of sound who always wanted to write a book about his experiences - but he doesn't know where to begin. At the same time, there may be hundreds of cooped-up, stressed out, burned out English majors in need of some PE outlet. A couple of courses about the physiological makeup of the body might help them learn the importance and benefits of de-stressing.
By collaborating horizontally we find things out about each other that we didn't know before. We find things out that we didn't know that we knew or that we wanted to know. We become richer.
Wiki Management Conversations
Some things I've heard around the water cooler:
We need to manage the corporate wiki
I can't find anything when I go to the wiki
I'm not sure how to create a page and if I did how would people find it
I want to create a wiki page that talks about our department and I want people to contribute to it
How do we add tags like keywords and metatags like author and expiration date?
What is the background of this wiki software - is it a database or is it xml?
Should we all be learning xml?
How do we single source the content in the wiki?
Should EVERYTHING be on the wiki?
How do we manage read/write access?
Should everyone have read/write access? If so, what will happen to the content?
How good is our content , how do we test the efficacy?
How many people each day go to the wiki?
What do the users want? How do we serve them?
What is the ROI?
We need to manage the corporate wiki
I can't find anything when I go to the wiki
I'm not sure how to create a page and if I did how would people find it
I want to create a wiki page that talks about our department and I want people to contribute to it
How do we add tags like keywords and metatags like author and expiration date?
What is the background of this wiki software - is it a database or is it xml?
Should we all be learning xml?
How do we single source the content in the wiki?
Should EVERYTHING be on the wiki?
How do we manage read/write access?
Should everyone have read/write access? If so, what will happen to the content?
How good is our content , how do we test the efficacy?
How many people each day go to the wiki?
What do the users want? How do we serve them?
What is the ROI?
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Reflection of my experience ENG 673 Fall 2010
This is a post to help me brainstorm ways to fulfill an ENG 673 assignment titled, "Reflect upon your experience this semester and your identity as a technical communicator."
I would say a year ago I probably did not know my place in technical communications. I started working as a technical writer in 1991 and am still employed as a technical writer today although a few years ago I started to feel the burnout and questioned whether I wanted to continue or take another path. I started looking at other career options including management, data warehousing, creative writing, and journalism. In the beginning, I set out to be a civil engineer, morphed over into chemistry, took some english classes, and reclaimed my love of writing in the spirit of technology as a technical writer.But I got bored, or distracted, or lost along the way. While researching graduate studies in creative writing, I looked back at my alma mater, MNSU and discovered the Technical Communications graduate studies courses. One caught my attention - Visual Technical Communication. I had become interested in data graphics and the display of technical information in many visual forms including graphs and charts and so this seemed like the class for me.
As an experienced technical writer and graphic artist in Information Technology with a special interest in end-user authored content, my place in this industry is to help others step back and take a good long look at all the 'stuff' that's published and how it might be managed. More specifically, wikis have been around long enough for some type of content management to be applied to them by now but wiki cms is basically unheard of.
Today, my company uses a corporate wiki to push content out to users but also allows a set of those users to author their own content through an approval system. We still don't have all of this figured out and I'm afraid we'll end up with a stockpile of gobbledygook without a way to manage it. I think if we apply some type of cms or web cms to the wiki while it is in its early stages of adoption, we'll come out with a more searchable, usable, maintainable, efficient end-user authored system.
Research Proposal IRB application draft
Summary of Task Due for ENG 673 - MNSU.
Draft a research proposal and IRB application for your project.
Write a 3-5 page research proposal and draft an IRB application to do research involving human participants.Basically, a proposal is asking for permission, and an IRB is an application. Just like a proposal for a new project at work, a research proposal involves work - a little persuasive writing. The following content was copied from my ENG 673 assignment:
an academic research proposal consists of five parts:
- An introduction that establishes the topic and introduces the research question.
- A review of literature (existing research) related to the topic and identifies a "gap" which your project will fill.*
- A proposed research methodology that will help you find an answer to your research question.
- A time line that estimates how long it will take you to complete the project and identifies any major milestones along the way.
- A bibliography of sources that you think you will use in the research project.
Writing Your Research Prospectus, Colorado State University
http://www.colorado.edu/pwr/writingtips/20.html
How to Write an Abstract/Prospectus, University of Nevada Las Vegas Writing Center
http://writingcenter.unlv.edu/writing/abstract.html
In addition to getting permission from your adviser to pursue your research topic, you may also need specific permission to gather data from people. The Institutional Research Board (IRB) protects the rights and welfare of all human participants in research conducted at or by Minnesota State University, Mankato.
To gain permission from the MSU Mankato IRB you must submit an application that describes what you will do, why you will do it, who you will use as participants, how you will reach them, and how you will protect them. Fortunately the IRB has posted several documents to guide your work:
-----------
So, I've started some of this on my blog just because talking it out is a way of brainstorming that helps me find my way:
Introduction
Corporate wikis - their number - their usage - a definition. How are they managed? Why has the technical communications community not become better at managing corporate wiki content created by the end user? How has this affected the quality of the content and the efficacy of the wiki? What do the proponents and opponents say about managing this type of content? How can it be managed? Should it be managed? If it were managed the way online help is managed, what benefits would we see? Would the world be a better place? How do you know? Why should I care?
Lit Review
Proposed Research Methodology
Time line
- 1-2 years
Bibliography
Annotated Bibliography blog
Blog post to brainstorm about ENG 673 assignment, "Develop your annotated bibliography (plus any additional research necessary) into a literature review."
What is already known about corporate wikis is that they are in use today, there is more than one way to manage the content and there is more than one tool choice. What is not known is how much better corporate wikis are being managed today than they were ten years ago. Research exists about content management systems but not specifically about wiki content management systems. Wikis are unique in that they are a sort of open forum and have traditionally been free of cumbersome content management rules and guidelines.
While all this is good for the author it is not good for the user conducting a search of a corporate wiki for particular content or even for an overview of all existing content.Annotated Bib to follow...
Methodology of my research project
Design the methodology of a research project.
What is a methodology?In short, the methodology chapter of your thesis/APP describes what you will do and how you plan to do it. It explains your research philosophy, whether you plan to use a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods approach and why that methodology is most appropriate for your research question. It describes your data collection methods, your population, and the criteria you will use to recruit and select members of the population to become your sample. The methodology may include sample questions, but the actual data collection instruments are more commonly included in an appendix.
I will show that corporate wikis contain user-authored content that would benefit from technical communications management techniques such as those that are applied to online help. I plan to write a claim, gather and summarize the research around the claim, and provide supportive documentation including examples. If I were writing a thesis, I would follow a mixed methods research approach where I would identify a sample set of corporate wikis and survey the users about usage and management of the wiki.
I will likely write an APP because the research around managing user-authored content in a corporate wiki has not been sufficiently gathered and published in the last year.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
APP / Thesis Status - November 6, 2010
My main claim is that technical writers should use organizational methods to better manage corporate wikis. If you look at how well structured an online help system is - from the SME interview to the topic list to the review cycle to the usability test and keyword identification - you see that most of these organizational elements are not being applied to the management of corporate wikis.
As a result, while the wiki may be a wonderful collaborative tool, the content is not usually verified, tested, organized, considered for keyword marking, considered for TOC marking, or considered for Index marking. When many authors contribute to a wiki, all the authors don't know what the other authors are doing. What you end up with is a pile of content - one big pile - with a stick through the middle.
Technical writers should lift off each piece of content from the stick, examine it for audience, purpose, date written, expiration date, category, type, and validity before publishing it for corporate usage.
As a result, while the wiki may be a wonderful collaborative tool, the content is not usually verified, tested, organized, considered for keyword marking, considered for TOC marking, or considered for Index marking. When many authors contribute to a wiki, all the authors don't know what the other authors are doing. What you end up with is a pile of content - one big pile - with a stick through the middle.
Technical writers should lift off each piece of content from the stick, examine it for audience, purpose, date written, expiration date, category, type, and validity before publishing it for corporate usage.
Capabilities and Roles of Enterprise Wikis in Organization Communication
Wagner, Christian, and Andreas Schroeder. 2010. "Capabilities and Roles of Enterprise Wikis in Organizational Communication." Technical Communication 57, no. 1: 68-89. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 6, 2010).
This is an article published in 2010. The audience is technical communicators. The author states that wiki technology is "an emerging new medium that allows dispersed groups to create shared content via collaborative editing and different-time communication."
The author points to the "refactoring capability of wikis" - "that enables new forms of collaboration and communication".
The author cautions that organizations considering implementation of a wiki should consider the human component - including "free-riding, or conflict of values."
Search Terms
Business Communication
Collaborative Writing
Content refactoring (there is only one article under this term)
Media capability
Wiki
More under Collaborative Writing:
Wikis: What students do and do not do when writing collaboratively.
Meishar-Tal, Hagit, and Paul Gorsky. 2010. "Wikis: what students do and do not do when writing collaboratively." Open Learning 25, no. 1: 25-35. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 6, 2010).
This is the report of a study where students built a wiki glossary. The researchers used certain actions when watching the students' actions. The findings were that students are more likely to add than delete content, and were likely to edit content as well. The researchers focused their efforts on providing teachers with information about how students use wikis to collaborate.
The Wiki at Work
At my workplace, the corporate wiki is used to communicate information to and from end users of the data warehouse. Included on the wiki are tools, support links, overviews, education information and class scheduled, newsletters, current data availability, outages, and a knowledgebase. It is internal to the company. The information is targeted to end users but is useful for executives and managers who want to know trends and numbers.
The wiki is managed by the end user program. The underlying tool is a customized sharepoint application. Not all users have read/write access but all users are granted read access to most pages. Some users have administrator privileges.
Content is managed both manually and automatically. Some tools are available for marking the expiration date of pages, for example, but no tools exist for easily adding search keywords, identifying target audience, author, or creation date. Some tools exist for workflow and approval management. A customized application allows users to select forms for creating mass emails.
More tools are needed to manage the content hierarchy, easily accessible expiration date pickers, and for adding metadata around author, keywords, title, content type, and summary. Content is placed in an explorer-type folder system but the typical end user does not have access to the storage structure. Consequently, content can be difficult to find and the end user does not know how much content exists, if it is expired or duplicated, or if it applies to their role.
The wiki is managed by the end user program. The underlying tool is a customized sharepoint application. Not all users have read/write access but all users are granted read access to most pages. Some users have administrator privileges.
Content is managed both manually and automatically. Some tools are available for marking the expiration date of pages, for example, but no tools exist for easily adding search keywords, identifying target audience, author, or creation date. Some tools exist for workflow and approval management. A customized application allows users to select forms for creating mass emails.
More tools are needed to manage the content hierarchy, easily accessible expiration date pickers, and for adding metadata around author, keywords, title, content type, and summary. Content is placed in an explorer-type folder system but the typical end user does not have access to the storage structure. Consequently, content can be difficult to find and the end user does not know how much content exists, if it is expired or duplicated, or if it applies to their role.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Putting it all together
I haven't blogged for awhile. I've been reading the Craft of Research and trying to narrow down my claim, make sure I have reasons/warrants/evidence. I know my claim is about user-authored content such as a company wiki and how to manage the content. I think Technical Writers haven't done enough to manage wiki content at companies.
The problem of content management systems, or web content management systems, and company wikis has been around, according to research articles, since at least 2002, yet nobody seems to be any better at managing the content in 2010. Technical writers should be looking at ways to manage wiki content for organizations.
Evidence
Conduct a google scholar search. Set the search results to display only 2009+ results. Search for Why Content Management Still Doesn't Work. Here are some results:
1.
2. Blending content and process management technologies with Web 2.0 tools for effective e-information management (2009)
The presentation covers document, content and process management technologies in an e-government environment; information classification, taxonomy development and maintenance; leveraging Web 2.0 tools for tacit knowledge sharing and collective preferences.
Issue: management of content
Not only is content management in your future, it is one of the greatest challenges faced by businesses (Hackos)
1. Digital content management: the search for a content management system
The problem of content management systems, or web content management systems, and company wikis has been around, according to research articles, since at least 2002, yet nobody seems to be any better at managing the content in 2010. Technical writers should be looking at ways to manage wiki content for organizations.
Evidence
Conduct a google scholar search. Set the search results to display only 2009+ results. Search for Why Content Management Still Doesn't Work. Here are some results:
1.
Transformational metadata and the future of content management — An interview with Madi Solomon of Pearson PLC
(2009)Metadata ingest may be one of the most costly endeavors in managing and maintaining a digital asset management system but it is well worth the effort if approached with a little innovation. Today we explore how metadata's value exceeds content in a world where information is the sandbox and everybody's a player.
2. Blending content and process management technologies with Web 2.0 tools for effective e-information management (2009)
The presentation covers document, content and process management technologies in an e-government environment; information classification, taxonomy development and maintenance; leveraging Web 2.0 tools for tacit knowledge sharing and collective preferences.
Issue: management of content
Claim: despite the identification of this issue years ago, content management is still lacking. Technical Writers should apply Web content management techniques to wikis.
Reasons: mismanagement, now more than ever content is getting harder to manage
Warrant: nobody will be able to find anything, duplication, low usage,
Backup: proof
1. Digital content management: the search for a content management system
a case study that demonstrates the increasing needs of digital content management Digital content management system is a software system that provides preservation, organization and dissemination services for digital collections. By adapting the systems analysis process, the University of Arizona Library analyzed its needs and developed content management system requirements for finding a suitable information system that addresses the increasing needs of digital content management. Dozens of commercial and open source candidates were examined to match against the requirements. This article provides detailed analysis of three major players (Greenstone, Fedora, and DSpace) in key areas of digital content management: preservation, metadata, access, and system features based on the needs of the University of Arizona Library. This paper describes the process used to analyze and evaluate potential candidates and includes results of analysis to illuminate the process
interesting - the systems analysis process - they analyzed systems - through a process
backs up my claim that there is a need for digital content management
search term_ cms
2. Understanding Web content management systems: evolution, lifecycle and market
2003 - literature review
The volume of digital content available on the World Wide Web has increased dramatically over the past six years. Some form of Web content management (WCM) system is becoming essential for organisations with a significant Web presence as the volume of content continues to proliferate. WCM systems have evolved rapidly from the basic HTML editors of six years ago, to the sophisticated content production and publishing tools available today. This paper presents a WCM hierarchy, examines the underlying Web content management lifecycle, and identifies the key market trends for WCM systems
backs up my claim that there is a high volume of digital content avail on the WWW and that some management of it is ESSENTIAL
search term_wcm
3. Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery
by Joann T. Hackos
2002 - book
Content management begins with a vision of the users' experience -- learning what information your customers, employees, and trading partners need from you and how best to deliver it. Successfully publishing your content to the Web and multiple other channels means grounding your strategy in your user community and building on it a comprehensive information model. An effective information strategy in today's highly competitive e-business world requires planning, design, structure, and collaboration. At the center of this strategy is content -- the currency for competing in the Digital Age. Your effectiveness at managing and delivering content can make the difference between business success and failure. Not only is content management in your future, it is one of the greatest challenges faced by businesses today.
nuf said Joan Hackos!
4. Content, content, everywhere...time to stop and think? The process of Web content management.
2002 - paper
Most organisations have implemented a Web site. Many are now experiencing problems associated with maintaining the content of that Web site. We discuss what has led to Web content management (WCM), what is driving it, and propose a WCM framework to help organisations to understand how to manage and control their Web sites better. Research involving the use of this framework is at an early stage, and any feedback is welcome
can any of this be applied to wikis to end user authored content?
5. The Wiki Way: Collaboratoin and Sharing on the Internet
2001 - article
Suitable for system administrators or managers seeking an affordable content-management solution, <I>The Wiki Way</I> shows off how to take advantage of Wiki collaborative software, which allows users to post and edit content remotely. This book is all you need to get up and running with this exciting (and free) way to build and manage content.<p> This text is first and foremost a guide to what Wiki software is and how to install, customize, and administer it within your organization. Early sections discuss the advantages of Wiki Web sites, which allow all users to add and edit content. While it might sound like a free-for-all, the authors suggest such Web sites have been used successfully in research, business, and education to document project designs, for brainstorming, and for otherwise creating content in a collaborative fashion. Case studies for such organizations as Georgia Tech, New York Times Digital, and Motorola give a glimpse of Wiki used in real settings, so you will get a sense of what to expect.<p> This book is also a guide to the nuts and bolts of downloading and installing Wiki and customizing it for your site. Sections on basic tweaks to Wiki's Perl scripts will let you customize your site to match your organization's
Evaluating a CMS
How to evaluate a cms, james robertson, 2002
Selecting and implementing a content management system (CMS) will be one of the largest IT projects tackled by many organisations. With costs running into the millions of dollars, it is vital that the right CMS package be selected.
Tools
Author-It
review
eZ Publish
Joomla!
Drupal
WordPress.org
Movable Type
Expression Engine
Mambo
Vivvo CMS
Textpattern
B2evolution
Sunday, October 17, 2010
On Creswell's Research Design 2nd Edition
I am in the dark again
I don't know where to focus
I think this Creswell thing has got me in a ruckus
I want to say I've quantitatively gathered enough information
But qualitatively the stuff I've found is causing agitation
To gather things together for an APP or take things apart for a proposal
Is this to be the end of me this obtusive living this invisible disposal
I don't know where to focus
I think this Creswell thing has got me in a ruckus
I want to say I've quantitatively gathered enough information
But qualitatively the stuff I've found is causing agitation
To gather things together for an APP or take things apart for a proposal
Is this to be the end of me this obtusive living this invisible disposal
How to Make Google Better - Make it More Structured (like Online Help)
What's wrong with Google? Why do I always end up with search results that lead me far away from my intended search topic or are just plain horrible?
In traditional online help, the author has probably used some type of compilation program such as RoboHelp.
The author has probably researched his or her topics and has probably consulted with a SME (subject matter expert) in writing the content.
The content is likely to meet at least some of the writing standards including clear, correct, testable, maintainable, etc. Also, there is likely to be a versioning system and a publishing process whereby only approved content is published along with the application or alongside the product.
In user-authored content, there is not likely to be any of these things.
Take Google Search for example. Comparing Google Search to the Search in Traditional Online Help:
Let's compare user-authored content 'systems' such as a wiki to traditional online help.
Let's compare WikiPedia to Traditional Online Help.
Perhaps in the wiki I use at work, it would be nice if the following features were present:
Anyway, none of this sounds like a research paper. Or a thesis. Just that I think traditional online help has its merits that user-authored content fails at.
User-authored content fails to measure up to traditional online help. Maybe that's my thesis.
Users may hate online help but it's clear, complete, accurate, consistent, testable, maintainable, and better than the alternative.
In comparing traditional online help to user-authored help, what are the differences? Is one better than the other?
Better would mean that more users are using it, it is more effective. Looking at traditional online help, I see a table of contents, linked topics, linked associated topics, an orderly structure, a hierarchy of topics, and an index, and a search. In traditional online help, the author has probably used some type of compilation program such as RoboHelp.
The author has probably researched his or her topics and has probably consulted with a SME (subject matter expert) in writing the content.
The content is likely to meet at least some of the writing standards including clear, correct, testable, maintainable, etc. Also, there is likely to be a versioning system and a publishing process whereby only approved content is published along with the application or alongside the product.
In user-authored content, there is not likely to be any of these things.
Take Google Search for example. Comparing Google Search to the Search in Traditional Online Help:
1. both yield search results
2. online help can be a full-text search, or not
3. google search is searching a copy of the internet on whatever or
however they index it 4. online help search is finite
5. google search is seemingly endless
6. online help search can be linked to the content in the index and the
toc thereby creating a map 7. in google there is no toc or index
Let's compare user-authored content 'systems' such as a wiki to traditional online help.
Let's compare WikiPedia to Traditional Online Help.
1. is there a TOC in both?
well in wikipedia you first select a language and it tells you the number of articles available, that's something online
help does not have.Perhaps in the wiki I use at work, it would be nice if the following features were present:
- number of articles available so I know how big the wiki has become
- date last changed
- by who
- reason
- number of people accessing
- content rating
- like/dislike
Anyway, none of this sounds like a research paper. Or a thesis. Just that I think traditional online help has its merits that user-authored content fails at.
User-authored content fails to measure up to traditional online help. Maybe that's my thesis.
Users may hate online help but it's clear, complete, accurate, consistent, testable, maintainable, and better than the alternative.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Online Tutoring
At least one research article found that students "preferred and performed better with human interaction instead of finding information on the Internet themselves." The human interaction included both face-to-face contact and contacting a tutor by electronic means including chat rooms, video camera, email, and text messaging. This shows me that at least students prefer getting help from another human being rather than "finding information on the Internet themselves."
Does this mean that using online help is the same as "finding information on the Internet themselves"?
Does this mean that using online help is the same as "finding information on the Internet themselves"?
Friday, October 15, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Would enabling an emotional component in online help bring traditional online help back from the brink?
Web 2.0 is an emotional world and users rely on each other rather than technical documentation for help with products and applications. The reason for this is another user is more likely to share empathy and to mirror or at least understand any emotions the user might have. Sites like Facebook, Trip Advisor and Amazon's product rating feature allow users to vent and to swap stories. Users are more likely to ask their friends how to use something rather than bother looking for the online help files published by the manufacturer.
Therefore, in order to bring traditional online help back from the brink, technical writers need to enable an emotional component.
Therefore, in order to bring traditional online help back from the brink, technical writers need to enable an emotional component.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Winter Puts on Her Lipstick
Early Fall in Nebraska is a fleeting friendship
Is it going to be nice out one more time, no more times?
I'm not going out there, it's just a trick.
There might be wind or rain or humidity
It could be hot or bitterly cold (in the same day)
There's probably something up in the air right now
It's deceptive - the changing leaves, the sunny skies, there's a quiet in the trees.
A quiet that is restless, that wants out, to open up and hurl its innards upon us.
It sits out there waiting, for a fall picnic, a football game, putting on its lipstick.
I don't trust it, this fleeting friendship - I know it's just a mask, a costume, a cover up.
Oh how I want to plan one more day of yardwork, a trip downtown, an outdoor shopping mall cornucopia.
But I don't dare because it is waiting
It wants to ruin our plans
A Nebraskan
Is it going to be nice out one more time, no more times?
I'm not going out there, it's just a trick.
There might be wind or rain or humidity
It could be hot or bitterly cold (in the same day)
There's probably something up in the air right now
It's deceptive - the changing leaves, the sunny skies, there's a quiet in the trees.
A quiet that is restless, that wants out, to open up and hurl its innards upon us.
It sits out there waiting, for a fall picnic, a football game, putting on its lipstick.
I don't trust it, this fleeting friendship - I know it's just a mask, a costume, a cover up.
Oh how I want to plan one more day of yardwork, a trip downtown, an outdoor shopping mall cornucopia.
But I don't dare because it is waiting
It wants to ruin our plans
A Nebraskan
Sunday, October 10, 2010
more questions keep coming up - when a user posts something about a product...
When a user posts something about a product, are they really making an indirect inquiry with that company? And do they expect a response?
Communicating lean WITH CUSTOMERS
This article "presents the variety of options available for the mode of communication to customers, including oral communications as the popular mode, written communication, and physical communication."
Reason why this article is valuable to my research: Even though this article is about selling process improvement, it brings up several key points:
- "you cannot overlook the responsibility of accurate and timely communication with customers"
- customers believe the worst when they haven't heard anything back
- (so maybe when they don't hear anything back, they go to other users and complain, maybe the entire user community is made up of consumer emotion, maybe technical writers are really psychologists)
- communication "provides direction" including instruction and training
- "the inquiry aspect of communication includes determing the extent of customer knowledge, customer attitudes, customer beliefs and importance to the customer" "It also includes questions offered by your customer to you."
(Does this mean questions posted in blogs, forums, and social media outlets including Twitter? If so, we can refer to user-authored content as the inquiry aspect of communication?)
(When a user posts something about a product are they really making an indirect inquiry?)
Revelle, Jack B. 2010. "Communicating lean WITH CUSTOMERS." Industrial Engineer: IE 42, no. 8: 40-44. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 10, 2010).
Subject Terms:
*LEAN manufacturing
*PRODUCTION control
*COMMUNICATION in management
*MANUFACTURING processes
*CONSUMERS
*CONSUMER satisfaction
*ORAL communication
*CUSTOMER services
*MANAGEMENT
*AWARENESS
SERVICES for
SOCIAL aspects
Reason why this article is valuable to my research: Even though this article is about selling process improvement, it brings up several key points:
- "you cannot overlook the responsibility of accurate and timely communication with customers"
- customers believe the worst when they haven't heard anything back
- (so maybe when they don't hear anything back, they go to other users and complain, maybe the entire user community is made up of consumer emotion, maybe technical writers are really psychologists)
- communication "provides direction" including instruction and training
- "the inquiry aspect of communication includes determing the extent of customer knowledge, customer attitudes, customer beliefs and importance to the customer" "It also includes questions offered by your customer to you."
(Does this mean questions posted in blogs, forums, and social media outlets including Twitter? If so, we can refer to user-authored content as the inquiry aspect of communication?)
(When a user posts something about a product are they really making an indirect inquiry?)
Revelle, Jack B. 2010. "Communicating lean WITH CUSTOMERS." Industrial Engineer: IE 42, no. 8: 40-44. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 10, 2010).
*LEAN manufacturing
*PRODUCTION control
*COMMUNICATION in management
*MANUFACTURING processes
*CONSUMERS
*CONSUMER satisfaction
*ORAL communication
*CUSTOMER services
*MANAGEMENT
*AWARENESS
SERVICES for
SOCIAL aspects
Using User-Authored Content to make Better Products
In researching "Trends in Online Help" I found "Trends in Technical Communication" (Brandon, Magnuson, Hoeppner, Melsted, a 2000 STC Conference Proceeding presentation)
The authors claim that "the best products are created and developed when the user is involved in the project."
Perhaps technical writers should compile information from user-authored content to help engineers make products better. This sounds like an entirely different research project than the one I am after. I am researching how technical writers could manage user-authored content. But now I am thinking that user-authored content could be used to make products better.
The authors claim that "the best products are created and developed when the user is involved in the project."
Perhaps technical writers should compile information from user-authored content to help engineers make products better. This sounds like an entirely different research project than the one I am after. I am researching how technical writers could manage user-authored content. But now I am thinking that user-authored content could be used to make products better.
"online help" Twitter Search
On October 10, 2010, I searched twitter for "online help". Here are some of the results relevant to my research on user-authored online help:
Note: Since tweets are public, I am posting the entire twitter message including the user's name:
DylanReeve: Evaluating @GoogleApps at work, but unusual email setup makes it difficult - online help useless, and impossible to actually talk to anyone!
mpmselenic: Great new feature from the #Mercurial sprint: online help in hg serve (http://www.selenic.com/hg/help) (this tweet was re-tweeted several times)
cruzDINERO: This is #twitter , nawt yhur online help center
delicious50: Using default views in your module | Views online help http://bit.ly/a7McEV
IndiansInParis: If you are in doubt about your written French, get reference and online help from French lexicon and grammar site. http://bit.ly/orthonet
Note: Since tweets are public, I am posting the entire twitter message including the user's name:
DylanReeve: Evaluating @GoogleApps at work, but unusual email setup makes it difficult - online help useless, and impossible to actually talk to anyone!
mpmselenic: Great new feature from the #Mercurial sprint: online help in hg serve (http://www.selenic.com/hg/help) (this tweet was re-tweeted several times)
cruzDINERO: This is #twitter , nawt yhur online help center
delicious50: Using default views in your module | Views online help http://bit.ly/a7McEV
IndiansInParis: If you are in doubt about your written French, get reference and online help from French lexicon and grammar site. http://bit.ly/orthonet
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The acceptance of blogs: using a customer experiential value perspective
Ching-Jui, Keng, and Ting Hui-Ying. 2009. "The acceptance of blogs: using a customer experiential value perspective." Internet Research 19, no. 5: 479-495. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 9, 2010).
Uses interesting search terms:
Subject Terms:
*BLOGS
*ELECTRONIC documents
*INTERPERSONAL communication
*SOCIAL ethics
*ONLINE information services
*INTERNET users
*MATHEMATICAL models
*EMPIRICAL research
*CONSUMERS
Why do I want to research this article?
Because "this paper aims to examine emotional experiences that internet users gain while reading blogs..."
If internet users are gaining emotional experiences while reading blogs then perhaps that is a motivator for seeking online help from a blog as opposed to the corporate documentation or company product manual.
If this is true and users are seeking out an emotional experience online, then there must be something unemotional about corporate and company product documentation. There must be something lacking in the way of personal experiences and emotional experiences.
How do we as technical writers incorporate emotional experiences into online help to draw in readers?
This paper's findings includes "empirical results demonstrates that: interpersonal interaction enhances browsers, aesthetic experiences as well as playfulness; machine interaction generates high aesthetics value which comprises visual and entertainment effects, service excellence, and CROI; perceived similarity by readers positively influences the four components of customer experiential value:..."
Uses interesting search terms:
*ELECTRONIC documents
*INTERPERSONAL communication
*SOCIAL ethics
*ONLINE information services
*INTERNET users
*MATHEMATICAL models
*EMPIRICAL research
*CONSUMERS
Why do I want to research this article?
Because "this paper aims to examine emotional experiences that internet users gain while reading blogs..."
If internet users are gaining emotional experiences while reading blogs then perhaps that is a motivator for seeking online help from a blog as opposed to the corporate documentation or company product manual.
If this is true and users are seeking out an emotional experience online, then there must be something unemotional about corporate and company product documentation. There must be something lacking in the way of personal experiences and emotional experiences.
How do we as technical writers incorporate emotional experiences into online help to draw in readers?
This paper's findings includes "empirical results demonstrates that: interpersonal interaction enhances browsers, aesthetic experiences as well as playfulness; machine interaction generates high aesthetics value which comprises visual and entertainment effects, service excellence, and CROI; perceived similarity by readers positively influences the four components of customer experiential value:..."
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